Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of The Witches: A Discworld Board Game

Basics-Welcome to Discworld! Take the role of the younger witches of Lancre. Players take turns setting out random problems. Then players get to do two actions after moving. The actions are solving problems or having tea. When you want to solve a problem, you roll two dice. You can then play cards or run away. If you don’t run away, you roll two more dice. If your total beats the number on the problem, you take the problem for its points. If you fail, you must move away and take a cackle token. Ones on the dice are cackles; cackles are tokens you take and when you can’t take any you gain negative points. Instead of solving a problem after moving, players can have tea with other players at your space and remove cackle counters from everyone involved. There are two types of problems: minor and major. For every two minor problem’s you solve, you increase your hand size by 1. For every two major problems you solve, you gain a permanent +1 to your dice pool. The game ends when all the problems are solved or until a situation where everybody loses occurs. If the problems are all solved, then the player with the most points wins.

Mechanics-This came is competitive, but there is no fighting between players. This is an interesting experience. Someone wins, but you can’t really hurt them at all. Everybody can lose if you don’t work together, but you have to play smart to make sure that doesn’t happen. I honestly enjoy the experience. You cheer other players on since if they don’t win it gets worse for everybody. The simple mechanics of rolling four dice make turns go fast. Cards give you powers, bonus to your rolls, or movement abilities. The whole game works well together. 5/5

Theme- The game does make the Lancre come alive. All the problems of the books show up here. Also, all the major locations from the books are here as well. Players get to be four of the different, junior witches with each one having different starting powers. The randomness of events does take a bit a way as the problems come up in strange combinations. That’s not game ending, but it’s something to note. 4.5/5

Instructions- The instructions are not great. They get the point across, and there is a nice cheat sheet. But, the Board Game Geeks forums are full of questions that should have been answered in the instruction book. 3/5

Execution- Tokens are nice quality cardboard. The board and cards all have beautiful artwork that looks like the artwork from the books. I liked what I saw when I opened the box. 5/5.

Summary- If you like Arkham Horror and the Discworld novels, this is an instabuy. If you want a game with a winner, but no real losers, then this is a great game. It’s fun to play a game with your family where you don’t compete so much as just try to be the best. I love this game, my wife loves this game, and most likely you will love this game. 87.5%